1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a multilayer ceramic electronic component such as a multilayer ceramic capacitor.
2. Description of the Background Art
Multilayer ceramic electronic components which are obtained by stacking ceramic green sheets with each other include a multilayer ceramic capacitor, a multilayer inductor, a multilayer circuit board and the like, for example. A multilayer ceramic capacitor, which is the most typical example of such multilayer ceramic electronic components, has generally been manufactured in the following manner:
(1) Rectangular ceramic green sheets to be stacked with each other are punched out from a large ceramic green sheet. PA0 (2) Internal electrodes are printed on the rectangular ceramic green sheets with conductive paste. PA0 (3) The printed internal electrodes are dried. PA0 (4) Some of the ceramic green sheets which are provided with internal electrodes having a first pattern are alternately stacked with others provided with internal electrodes having a second pattern, which is different from the first pattern. PA0 (5) The stacked ceramic green sheets are aligned with each other on the basis of their outlines thereof. PA0 (6) The layered product of the ceramic green sheets is pressurized. PA0 (7) The layered product is cut to obtain chips for defining individual multilayer ceramic capacitors, and thereafter each chip is subjected to a firing step and a step of forming external electrodes, to obtain a desired multilayer ceramic capacitor.
In the aforementioned method of manufacturing a multilayer ceramic capacitor, the rectangular ceramic green sheets having prescribed sizes are first obtained in step (1), and thereafter subjected to the steps (2) to (7). Particularly in the steps (2) to (5), the rectangular ceramic green sheets are directly handled. However, such direct handling of the ceramic green sheets becomes increasingly difficult as the ceramic green sheets are reduced in thickness.
The capacitance acquired by the multilayer ceramic capacitor is substantially determined in step (2). Namely, the internal electrodes are printed in step (2) on the ceramic green sheets, which have already been rectangularly punched out with determined outlines, and the stacked ceramic green sheets are aligned with each other in step (5) on their basis of the outlines. Thus, it is not possible to arbitrarily change the capacitance acquired by a multilayer ceramic capacitor formed in this way, insofar as the ceramic green sheets are provided with internal electrodes having the same types of patterns. In order to obtain a plurality of types of multilayer ceramic capacitors having different capacitance values, it is necessary to prepare a plurality of types of ceramic green sheets which are provided with internal electrodes having different patterns in step (2).
In step (4), further, the ceramic green sheets provided with the internal electrodes having the first pattern are alternately stacked with those provided with the internal electrodes having the second pattern. Thus, it is necessary to prepare at least two types of ceramic green sheets which are provided with internal electrodes.